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Report: Despite Promises, Obama Hasn't Improved Open-Info Much

October 20, 2010

As soon as he arrived in office, President Obama promised to bring an unprecedented openness to the federal government. A mid-term report by a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, concludes that Obama's promise has yet to be met.

CREW, a frequent Freedom of Information Act requester, says its own experience is that the Obama administration continues to block records disclosure on controversial subjects, almost as much as the Bush administration had.

CREW conducted a survey of FOIA workers at federal agencies and found that part of the reason for lack of significant improvement was understaffing and underfunding of agency FOIA offices.